The Little Saigon Cookbook: Vietnamese Cuisine and Culture in Southern California's Little Saigon
Page 15
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the onion, lime juice, Sriracha chili sauce, fish sauce, garlic, black pepper, and sugar, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Set the marinade aside.
3. If you’re searing the beef, heat a lightly oiled skillet or grill pan over high heat. Put in the slices of raw beef and cook on each side for about 10 seconds each. Transfer from the pan to a clean dish.
4. Pour the marinade all over the raw or seared beef. Make sure the slices are completely coated by tossing the meat together with the marinade. Let sit for 15 minutes in the refrigerator if the beef is raw to allow the lime marinade to “cook” and cure it. If the meat is seared, let it sit for just 5 minutes on the counter.
5. Spoon the sliced beef with the marinade over a bed of mung bean sprouts on a serving platter. Garnish with scallions, whole chile, cilantro, and roasted peanuts. Serve with steamed rice and the salad platter and a bowl of nuoc cham.
PAN-FRIED FILET OF BEEF WITH TOMATO AND HERBS
Bò Bít Tt
This dish is always a favorite at wedding receptions. The sweet and salty marinade creates a lusty meat that is almost buttery in texture and flavor. With the fresh tomatoes and herbs, the dish comes out light and clean. The meat is best suited for pan-frying, as the residual juices and marinade can be tossed in the skillet together with the tomatoes and herbs for added flavor. Grilling is a satisfactory variation.
3 tablespoons fish sauce
½ tablespoon fresh lime juice
½ fresh Thai bird chile, finely
chopped
½ tablespoon sugar
½ tablespoon black pepper
¼ cup roughly chopped fresh
mint leaves
¼ cup roughly chopped fresh
cilantro leaves
¼ cup roughly chopped fresh
Vietnamese coriander leaves
¼ cup roughly chopped fresh
Thai basil leaves
2 scallions, chopped into rings
2 tablespoons oil
2 shallots, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 pound filet mignon, cut into
½-inch-thick slices
3 medium tomatoes, each cut into
6 pieces
½ small cucumber, peeled and
thinly sliced
1. In a small bowl, whisk together the fish sauce, lime juice, chile, sugar, and black pepper, until the sugar is dissolved.
2. In a large bowl, toss together the mint, cilantro, coriander, Thai basil, and scallions. Sprinkle them over a large platter.
3. In a large skillet, heat the oil over high heat. Add the shallots and cook for a few minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another minute.
4. Add the sliced filet to the pan. Pour the fish sauce mixture over it and toss quickly. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for a minute before adding the tomatoes and sliced cucumber. Cook for another 3 to 4 minutes for medium rare.
5. Arrange the beef, tomatoes, and cucumber over the herbs. Top with the liquid from the skillet. Serve immediately with hot steamed rice or plain bun.
RICE NOODLES STIR-FRIED WITH VEGETABLES, PORK, AND SHRIMP
H Tiêu Xào Tom Tht
This is a great, family-style noodle dish to serve as either a side dish or a main course at a large dinner. Hu tieu noodles are great, flat noodles that are fun to eat. With large, stir-fried noodle dishes, it is always nice to offer a few dishes of sauces so that diners can flavor the noodles to their own liking. For example, try serving this dish with nuoc cham, Peanut Sauce (see recipe in Basics), or Maggi. Or try a different type of noodle—egg or thin rice vermicelli (bun). Substitute pork for beef or chicken, or go vegetarian with tofu or bean curd. You can also add more vegetables to the stir-fry.
pound lean pork shoulder
1½ tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
½ teaspoon chili paste
½ tablespoon black pepper
½ tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons sesame seed oil
1 large onion, diced
2 shallots, diced
5 cloves garlic, smashed
½ pound raw fresh shrimp,
peeled, deveined, and cut
lengthwise
2 medium carrots, julienned and
cut into 2-inch pieces
1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
1 cup chopped bok choy
1 cup broccoli florets
6 cups cooked wide rice noodles
2 scallions, chopped into rings
1. Slice the pork into very thin slices, and then cut those slices into 2x1-inch pieces.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili paste, black pepper, and sugar, until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.
3. In a large skillet or wok, heat the oil over medium heat. When it is hot, saute the onions and shallots for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic cloves and continue cooking for another 3 minutes.
4. Add the sliced pork and cook for about 8 minutes or until it is no longer pink. Add the shrimp and cook for about 3 minutes or until it has curled and turned pink in color.
5. Add the carrots, celery, bok choy, and broccoli florets to the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes.
6. Finally, add the noodles and the fish sauce mixture and quickly saute the noodles for another minute. Turn off the heat and continue tossing all the ingredients until they are evenly blended and distributed.
7. Add the scallions and serve on a large platter.
GINGERED SAUTEED EGG NOODLES WITH PORK, SHRIMP, AND VEGETABLES
Mì Xào Dòn
This is not the bird’s-nest fried noodle dish that we see so often at Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants. Rather than deep-frying the noodles, this recipe is light on oil and has great flavors from myriad ingredients. Substitute or add tofu or any other ingredients you enjoy. The seafood version of this dish consists of just shrimp, squid, and vegetables. But the beauty of this recipe is adding what you please.
½ pound pork shoulder (or another
fatty pork meat like bacon)
¼ cup fish sauce
1 teaspoon chili paste
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
5 tablespoons oil
1 large onion, diced
2 shallots, diced
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 small bunch broccoli, rinsed and
separated
pound raw fresh shrimp, peeled
and deveined
1 cup snow peas
1 bunch bok choy, roughly chopped
cup straw mushrooms
6 cups cooked thin or thick egg noodles
2 scallions, chopped into rings
¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
cup chopped unsalted dry-roasted
peanuts
1. Cut the pork into bite-size, ¼-inch-thick slices. Prepare all the remaining ingredients before you start stir-frying and arrange them separately near your stove.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the fish sauce, chili paste, oyster sauce, salt, and pepper.
3. In a large skillet or wok, heat the oil over medium heat. When it is hot, add the onions and shallots and cook for about 3 minutes or until brown. Add the garlic and cook for another few minutes.
4. Add the ginger, then the carrots, pork, and broccoli. Cook and stir quickly for a few minutes. Then add the fish sauce combination and blend well.
5. After 5 minutes, or when the broccoli begins to soften, add the shrimp, snow peas, bok choy, and mushrooms. Cook for another 2 minutes or until the shrimp and pork are cooked.
6. Add the cooked noodles and scallions and blend evenly.
7. Serve hot on a large platter, garnished with the cilantro and crushed peanu
ts.
TRADITIONAL FRIED RICE
Cm Chiên Tom Ci
There is always leftover steamed rice from past dinners, but what to do with it? Recycle it into flavorful fried rice! Traditional Vietnamese fried rice is often served as an entree on the lazy Susan in Little Saigon’s restaurants. And at elaborate wedding dinners, our fried rice often includes bits of crab and even lobster. A heaping plate of fried rice should not be served with salty main dishes, as it is already seasoned and salted. If you have been eager to use your wok, here is your chance, but a large, deep skillet is perfectly appropriate as well. Once you have the idea of this basic recipe, add more of your favorite ingredients—substitute tofu for the sausage, add broccoli or bok choy—any way you like.
6 cups cooked and cooled
white rice
4 large eggs
¼ cup fish sauce
1 teaspoon chili paste
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1½ teaspoons ground black
pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup fresh mung bean sprouts
2 large carrots, diced
1 cup frozen or canned peas
1 cup snow peas
2 Chinese sausages, cut lengthwise
and diced
2 scallions, sliced into rings
½ pound raw shrimp, peeled,
and sliced lengthwise
1 tablespoon Maggi Seasoning Sauce
½ cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Chopped unsalted dry-roasted peanuts (optional)
1. Put the rice in a large bowl. Break apart any clumps with your hands or a fork. Then crack the eggs over the rice and stir to combine. Each grain of rice does not need to be evenly coated with egg.
2. In a small bowl, combine the fish sauce, chili paste, oyster sauce, black pepper, and sugar, and whisk until the sugar is dissolved.
3. Prepare all your ingredients and arrange them separately near the stove. If you are using a wok, you can make the entire recipe at one time, but if you have only a large skillet, divide the ingredients in half to cook two batches.
4. Begin by heating the oil over high heat. When the oil is hot, bring the heat down to medium and add the onions. Cook until soft or about 5 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the bean sprouts, carrots, peas, and snow peas and cook until they are soft, about 3 minutes. It is important that you constantly stir the ingredients as they cook. Add the fish sauce mixture. Stir well.
5. Add the sausage, scallions, and shrimp, and continue stirring for another 5 minutes until the shrimp is cooked through. Finally add the rice and stir quickly for about a minute to make sure everything is tossed together evenly.
6. Pour the Maggi sauce over everything and toss further just to combine.
7. Transfer to a large serving plate or bowl, and garnish with more black pepper, cilantro, and, if desired, the roasted peanuts.
Festive Holiday Foods
TET, THE VIETNAMESE NEW YEAR
Tet, short for “Tet Nguyen Dan,” is the Vietnamese New Year, and by far the most celebrated and festive of holidays for the Vietnamese and the Little Saigon community. Tet is based on specific moon calculations on the lunar calendar and generally takes place in late January or early February, on the same day as the Chinese New Year. The holiday, which starts on Tet and continues for two more days, is rooted in centuries-old traditions, with a special emphasis on food and feasting. Families congregate, most people attend temple or church, schools and businesses have time off, and numerous festivals are held.
For many Vietnamese Americans all over the country, Tet involves a pilgrimage to Little Saigon, because of its many festivities and large concentration of Buddhist temples. The cities of Westminster and Garden Grove see more tourists during the Tet season than at any other time of the year. More than just encompassing the spirit and excitement of a new year, recent Tet festivities in Little Saigon have become more focused on passing on the core cultural traditions of Tet to the next generation. In the early 1980s celebrations involved just a dragon dance or a tiny community parade, but today there are plays based on Vietnamese mythology put on by local Vietnamese student organizations, entire replicas of rural Vietnam, pageants, extravagant Vietnamese music shows, as well as dragon dances, fire-crackers, orchids, and cherry blossom stands. Tet festival proceeds go on to fund community programs and projects for the rest of the year.
Leading up to Tet, families spend days cleaning and preparing their homes in anticipation of the festivities. Homes are decorated, new clothes purchased, and bills and debts settled in order to begin the new year with a clean slate. In present-day Little Saigon, the community shuts down early on Tet, rather than take the whole day off, which still allows for family time and traditions such as the giving of li si to children. The family congregates—usually in a grandparent’s or another elder’s home (showing respect by visiting the eldest in the family)—and the children take their turn saying a chuc Tet, or wish, to each adult, perhaps “Chuc cau, vui ve, manh khoe cho nam moi,” or “I wish Uncle happiness, health in this new year.” So pleased is Uncle with this greeting that he grants each child a red li si, stuffed with new bills. The same routine continues with each adult relative. Thus, capitalism and enterpreneurial skills are taught to children at a young age as they gather all those red money envelopes from their relatives. (The color red stands for wealth and prosperity, and during Tet the streets of Little Saigon are draped with red ribbon.)
The Vietnamese call celebrating Tet an Tet, which translates verbatim as “eating Tet.” It is appropriate, given that the holiday revolves around the celebration of food and its consumption. The business of food is of great importance during Tet; restaurants participate as vendors at festivals, or remain in their locations and brace themselves for the influx of tourists and celebrants. The elaborate and abundant meals also occur at the homes of friends and family. The foods have to be made in advance and must be able to be kept for several days simply because people are too busy celebrating during Tet to do any cooking.
The traditional foods of Tet vary from one region to another in Vietnam. In the North there are jellied meats, salted carp, and boiled chicken. In Central Vietnam, or Hue, there are more meat dishes and shrimp pies. In the South, where it is much warmer, there is more emphasis on thit kho—foods slowly braised with lots of fish sauce and coconut juice. Salting meats keeps the foods preserved for much longer in a land of no refrigeration. The beauty of kho dishes is that they taste even better the next day.
Besides the regional dishes, there are a number of other Tet treats (such as banh Tet, banh day, and banh trung, all made of pork and a green mung bean paste in a glutinous rice shell, and wrapped in banana leaves that give the banh its green coloring when steamed) and assortments of different candied coconut, peanut brittle, dates, and fruits that are given to family and neighbors. These traditional Tet foods are now mostly purchased instead of being made at home. Nuts and candied fruits are boxed and sold in ornate red tins. It’s part of the holiday commercialism that has evolved in Little Saigon. Whether this is a positive or negative trend, it does leave more time for many to participate in the revelry and the celebrations within the community.
What specifically do the Vietnamese eat at home, at the festivals, and in the restaurants during this festive season? In this chapter you will find the more popular Tet dishes of the South Vietnamese such as kho and other braised foods, and festive dishes for a large party. The Lazy Susan chapter provides even more recipes for the celebratory New Year’s dinners served by many of the restaurants during the Tet season. Many of these recipes you will want to serve year-round.
PORK BRAISED IN CARAMEL SAUCE
Tht Kho
The Vietnamese are known for kho dishes—braised, caramelized food. When sugar is cooked over medium to high heat, it will caramel
ize into a thick brown sauce. Some cooks like to create a caramel sauce to pour over the food. I prefer to cover the meat with a generous amount of sugar and brown it, which produces a nice caramel coating as well as permeating the food with a light taste of sugar. As the meat braises, the liquid and sugars will continue to cook and thicken. Kho is a verb, and it explains the process of slowly braising foods with lots of fish sauce and coconut juice. This slow-cooked braised pork in coconut juice has a wonderful caramel sauce and is one of my maternal grandma’s (ba ngoai) best dishes. Some may find cooking with the fat and rind of the pork unappealing, but braising with the fat makes for a more flavorful dish. However, you can certainly make this dish with other pork cuts, such as pork spareribs or leaner pork cuts like sirloin or tenderloin; just keep the pieces in bite-size portions.
2 hard-boiled eggs
½ pound pork shoulder, with
fat and rind (or slab bacon)
2½ tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons olive or
vegetable oil
cup fish sauce
1½ cups fresh coconut juice or
coconut soda such as Coco Rico
1 scallion, chopped into rings
½ tablespoon ground black
pepper